What should a nonprofit website include? At minimum, seven core pages: a homepage that states who you serve and how, an about page with your mission and people, program pages with proof of impact, a donate page with minimal friction, a get-involved page, a news or blog section, and a contact page with a real address and reply path.
If you’re planning a redesign (or building your organization’s first site), the page list is usually where the project stalls. Everyone agrees the site needs “the basics,” but nobody has written down what the basics are or what each page actually has to do. This guide walks through every core page, what belongs on it, and why it earns its place. It’s the same framework we use with our own clients: we’ve worked with more than 1,000 nonprofits since 2007, and these patterns hold up.
What pages does every nonprofit website need?
For almost every nonprofit, whatever its size or cause, the answer is the same seven core pages: home, about, programs and impact, donate, get involved, news, and contact. Everything else on your site (annual reports, event calendars, press rooms, advocacy toolkits) hangs off this skeleton.
Here’s what each page is for, and the one thing it can’t ship without.
| Page | Primary job | One thing it can’t ship without |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage | Orient visitors and route them | A one-sentence statement of who you serve and how |
| About | Earn trust in the people behind the work | Mission, team bios, and financial transparency |
| Programs and impact | Show what you do and prove it works | One page per program, outcomes over activity counts |
| Donate | Turn intent into a completed gift | A short form that works on a phone |
| Get involved | Give non-donors a next step | Volunteer sign-up and email opt-in |
| News or blog | Show the organization is alive | Recent, dated updates |
| Contact | Make you reachable | A monitored form or email, plus a physical address |
Notice that every page has a job, and each job is defined by what the visitor needs from it. If a page on your current site doesn’t have a clear job, cut it or merge it. For the principles that sit underneath these calls (navigation, accessibility, speed), see our guide to nonprofit website best practices.
What makes a strong homepage?
A strong homepage works like a routing station. Most visitors arrive with a half-formed question: what does this organization do, is it legitimate, how do I give or get help? The homepage has a few seconds to answer that question and point them to the right page.
- A one-sentence statement of who you serve and how, visible without scrolling. If a stranger can’t repeat back what you do after five seconds, rewrite it.
- One primary call to action. Usually that’s Donate. Give it the most visual weight, and don’t make it compete with four other buttons.
- Proof you’re real and effective: a few outcomes you can stand behind, a short story, partner or press logos.
- Plain navigation to the other six pages. Choose clear labels over clever ones: “Programs” works harder than “Our work in the world.”
If you want to see these principles working, we keep a running list of the best nonprofit websites and break down what each one gets right.
What should your about page include?
The about page is where people go to decide whether to trust you. Donors check it before giving, journalists before quoting you, grant officers before shortlisting you.
It needs four things: your mission stated plainly (if yours has drifted into jargon, our collection of effective nonprofit mission statements is a useful reset), the story of why the organization exists, real photos and short bios of the people doing the work, and financial transparency — your latest annual report or Form 990, one click away.
We’ve dissected this page element by element in the anatomy of a nonprofit about us page, so we’ll leave the full walkthrough to that guide.
How should you present programs and impact?
Give each major program its own page, and write it for someone who has never heard of you. Every program page should answer three questions: who is this for, how does it work, and what changes because of it.
Then resist the urge to describe activity and call it impact. “We held forty workshops” is an output; what happened to the people in those workshops is an outcome. Lead with outcomes, and let stories carry the emotional weight. One participant’s story, told with permission, does more than a wall of numbers. If you do publish numbers, publish only the ones you could defend in a board meeting.
Plainly written program pages have a second audience, too: search engines and AI assistants quote pages that answer a question directly. When someone asks a chatbot which organizations do your kind of work, specific, jargon-free program descriptions are what get you into that answer.
What does a good donate page look like?
A good donate page is a short one, because it has exactly one job: turning intent into a completed gift. Every extra field, paragraph, and menu item works against it.
- A form that fits on one phone screen, or close to it. Ask only for what you need to process the gift.
- Suggested amounts tied to something concrete, so donors know what a given gift does.
- A monthly option, made prominent. Recurring donors are worth far more over time than one-time givers.
- Trust signals: a tax-deductibility note, your EIN, and a visibly secure checkout.
- No exit ramps. Simplify the navigation so the obvious next step is finishing the gift.
The donate page is one piece of a larger system of appeals, email, and follow-up. Our nonprofit fundraising guide covers how the whole machine fits together.
How do you capture supporters who aren’t ready to give?
Most visitors won’t donate today, and a site with no next step for them loses those people entirely. The get-involved page exists for exactly these visitors, offering each kind of supporter something they can say yes to.
- Volunteer sign-up, with real roles and time commitments spelled out. We’ve written about how to structure volunteer opportunities so people actually apply.
- Email newsletter opt-in — the most valuable soft conversion on the site, because it turns an anonymous visit into a relationship.
- Events, advocacy actions, or in-kind giving, if they fit your work.
Treat the email signup seriously. Donor retention is the weakest link for most organizations, and the mailing list is where retention starts.
Why do news and contact pages still matter?
The news or blog section proves your organization is alive. A site last touched two years ago whispers “defunct” to donors and funders; recent, dated updates say the opposite. You don’t need a heavy editorial calendar; a modest publishing rhythm you can sustain is enough. Publishing pages that answer real questions also gives search engines, and now AI assistants, something to cite.
The contact page tends to get overlooked, but it carries real weight with funders and first-time visitors. Include a monitored form or a real email address, a physical address (funders look for one), a phone number if you can staff it, and a plain sentence about how quickly people can expect a reply. A contact form that goes unanswered erodes trust quickly.
For the thinking behind the page list, see nonprofit website strategy.
Nonprofit website FAQs
How many pages does a nonprofit website need?
Most organizations can cover everything that matters in seven to twelve pages. Adding more rarely makes a site look more credible, and it usually buries the pages that convert.
What is the most important page on a nonprofit website?
The donate page, if you measure by direct value, but the homepage and about page do the trust-building that gets people there. Treat the three as a system rather than ranking them.
Does a small nonprofit need a blog?
Yes, but at a sustainable pace. A few genuinely useful posts a year, kept current, do more for search visibility and donor confidence than an ambitious calendar you abandon by March.
Should the donate button appear on every page?
Yes. Put it in the site header, give it a contrasting color, and keep it in the same spot everywhere, so it’s there the moment someone decides to give.
How do accessibility requirements affect what your website includes?
Every page should meet WCAG 2.2 AA: sufficient color contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text on images, and forms with proper labels. Accessibility works as a standard you apply to every page, rather than a page of its own.
If you’re staring at a sitemap wondering which pages stay, merge, or go, that’s a conversation our designers have every week. Elevation has built websites for nonprofits, and only nonprofits, since 2007, and the page list is where every project starts. Take a look at our UX and UI design services and tell us about your project. We’re glad to help you think through where to start.
